From Research on the Musical “Trans-avant-garde”: A Contribution to the Discussion on the Terminology Concerning the Historiography of 20th Century Polish Music

Abstract

he research article discusses the concept of “the trans-avant-garde” (a term coined by theItalian art critic Achille Bonito Oliva to describe certain phenomena in visual arts, espe- cially painting, which have appeared since the end of the 1970s) and attempts to adapt it for a discussion of twentieth century Polish music. The trans-avant-garde (Italian la transavanguardia) is an Italian form of expressionism in art (neo-expressionism), origi- nating as a rejection of modernism, formalism, innovation, originality, and stylistic coher- ence, which began to treat tradition in a new way, extensively referring to 16th century mannerisms, ambiguity, stylistic pluralism and polysemy.

While, on the one hand, trans-avant-garde artists are fully aware of the crisis of the avant- garde experiment, on the other, they aim to create content-packed works of deeply expres- sive and romantic character. The trans-avant-garde is widely considered to be an early stage of postmodernism, or simply its synonym. There is a difference, though, between the trans-avant-garde and the postmodern. Oliva speaks of a journey from America to Eu- rope and back. My article discusses these differences, systematizes the most important stylistic aspects and aesthetic ideas, and applies these observations to the study of music—a discipline Oliva did not take into consideration.

A key issue in the description of the trans-avant-garde in Polish music is analysis of the trends that precede it, are synchronous with it, and follow it in history. It is also important to trace borrowings and differences along this time axis. In order to offer an insight of thiskind, I first present the different concepts of “modernity” and “postmodernity” that haveappeared in music (and art) of the twentieth century, and I then juxtapose those with the Italian original idea of la transavanguardia.